Redevelopment plan for St. John’s park starts

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This article was published 29/06/2017 (3114 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Winnipeg is moving forward with a redevelopment plan for St. John’s Park and wants to know which changes residents would like to see.

On June 22, the City presented the redevelopment’s master plan to area residents at St. John’s Park. 

The plan proposes a redeveloped front entry and signage, skateboarding features, new picnic shelters, nature playground for kids 12 years old and up, and community garden plots, among other features. The City hopes the redevelopment meets residents’ visions and needs, Shauna Prociuk, project co-ordinator with the City, said.

“Right now we are looking at what needs to be redeveloped, what needs to be fixed up, what needs to be added and removed,” she added.

Next year, St. John’s Park will celebrate its 125th anniversary. The City has $340,000 in funding available for a commemorative monument, consulting fees and the redevelopment of the park.

“A lot of our parks are just aging,” she explained. “The master redevelopment plan is about what parts of the park need to be fixed up, like lighting and pathways.”

Seven Oaks resident Cindy Brazer said the park has needed improvements for the last 20 years. Brazer walks her dogs at the park every day and said the redevelopment is a much-needed project. She said kids don’t have a lot of options in the area to keep active and in many cases, their parents can’t drive them around.

“Most of the kids being in the North End, they don’t drive anywhere. Parents can’t drive them,” she said. “The number of kids is constantly increasing, and if kids don’t keep active and have nothing to do, that’s when they get in trouble.

“We live in an area where kids can’t just hop on their bikes and safely ride somewhere. They can’t ask their parents ‘Hey drive me to such and such place.’ Kids run out of options. If the City gives them options here, maybe we’ll have less problems later on.”

During the information session, Prociuk’s team handed out forms where people could share their feedback and point out what should be the priorities for improvement.

Brazer told The Times there’s a stretch of St. Cross Street where she often sees drug use and prostitution and said this is a concerning issue for parents. At the public session, she shared a suggestion that a fenced dog park could solve the problems.

“It will be used mainly by adults, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, summer and winter, and that discourages that unwanted behaviour because it’s rough when the kids see that on a regular basis.”

The St. John’s redevelopment plan steering committee proposes that the park becomes the home to Winnipeg’s first healing forest, which will create a memorial to Indigenous children lost to the residential school system, murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls and Indigenous children lost in child welfare systems.

The first healing forest opened in November 2016 in Edmonton after lawyer Patricia Stirbys and environmental and development advisor Peter Croal envisioned planting a forest to be a special place for families who lost their loved ones to reflect, heal and grow closer together as they seek strength and resilience.

“The idea is to create an intentional space for people to come and learn, reflect and pay respects. It’s a potential set aside space that is there to continue the work of reconciliation. It will be a gathering spot for people to come hear stories and learn,” Kyle Mason, executive director of the North End Family Centre who is part of the steering community, said. 

A survey is available online until July 7 for those who want to give their feedback at winnipeg.ca/stjohnspark